Rosa Parks Sparknotes

Rosa Parks: My Story, by Rosa Parks, is an autobiography in which Parks retells the events of her life as an African American girl living in the South before and through the Civil Rights Movement. The book is a great insight into what hardships and events that people in her situation had to face. The book begins with Parks explaining life as a small child. Her parents had married about a year before she was born. Her mother was a teacher and her father was a carpenter. Racial issues had existed since before Parks was born. She also shares about her grandparents and how during their days they had to face life as a slave. Whites in the South would force these poor people to work for them for little to no pay and whack living conditions. She
Raymond also became a major NAACP and Civil Rights activist. She also shares his connection to the Scottsboro Boys case. Parks had organized a group of people to raise money for legal fees in the trial against the Scottsboro boys. The Scottsboro boys (who had never met each other before this case) were a group of nine young black boys who were accused of raping white women. It became a biased case and the case ended with eight of the nine sentenced to death in an electric chair. As time passed, white violence increased and life became more terrifying. Buses, schools, and water fountains had been separated for a long time, but now if an African American used a designated “white” facility, guns were drawn and handcuffs were clicked. She also tells the infamous story of the bus. Parks had ridden the bus like any other, but as the bus filled, one white man was left without a seat. The driver had demanded she give up her seat, but she refused to. She was arrested and put in jail and the incident presented an opportunity for Parks to be the plaintiff in a case against
Although that is my unprejudiced opinion, a lot of people won’t see the same way. I personally believe in the ideas that were presented and my appreciation for this subject has increased after reading and analyzing this book. I strongly encourage others to read this to realize what has happened and how much we as a nation have learned from it, regardless of what it looks like sometimes. Also, knowing of the author’s real life has helped me to understand the book better. I think this is probably more accurate than other books and unique in that it is a firsthand account of these